1883
by Travis Church
Summary: It is the year 1883 and a mysterious force threatens the Empire where the "Sun Never Sets." A Russian industrialist, a British alchemist, a Sumatran Queen, and an Australian investor race to find a greenhorn settler with a gift for revolution and stop the infamous Mister Black, a man endowed with a power so great and so evil that it threatens mankind. Reviews Returned!
1. Chapter 1

Two men, both in thick trench coats, were walking towards a large factory. Their shoes made quiet footprints in the late winter snow and their brass cufflinks shone a dull white despite the cloudy morning sky. One of the men paused and pointed at the main entrance of the factory. They saw at group of large burly men, thick as the famed Redwood trees in California, and the sabers and rifles they touted.

The other man, in confidence but perhaps in foolishness, walked to the guards with his arms wide open.

"_Ostanovit narushitelya_!" one of the guards shouted. "_Eto ne obshchestvennoye mesto_!"

"Prostite, my ishchem mistera North," the foolish man said as he presented a piece of paper with an excessive number of stamps and signatures upon it.

The guards inspected the paper, each one taking their time with it but then passing it on to the next one in confusion and surprise. When the less brash man finally caught up to the foolish man, he pulled him aside and whispered, "Are you insane? These barbarians do not care about your paperwork! How many Rubles do you have?"

"None," the other man replied nonchalantly.

"God have mercy on our-"

"_Vy oba idite syuda_!" a guard shouted at the two men. The more brash man took the lead whereas the more cautious man kept a hand on the pistol hidden in his coat pocket.

"_Sleduyte za mnoy_," the guard said as he handed back the paper and pushed open the large iron gate.

"How on Earth did that work?" the timid man whispered as they passed through the courtyard of the factory.

"Times are different my good friend," the brave man said as they approached the large wooden doors of the factory. "All hail the good rule of Alexander the Second, liberator of Russia, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias."

The door slowly opened and revealed massive steel smelters, towering high and mighty like great volcanoes erupting. These men were taking ordinary ingots, dull and bland, and transforming it into all mighty steel! And, in the process, were making fiery bright suns in the heart of these furnaces!

"_Sushchestvuyet chelovek, kotorogo vy ishchete_," the guard said as he pointed to an equally as tall and bulky man writing something down in a notebook the size of his palm.

"_Spasibo_," the brash man said as he tipped his hat in thanks.

The two men walked over to the large man and asked in unison, "Mister North?"

"_Da_?" The massive man turned to face them and wedged his notebook in a suspender strap.

"Mister M would like to summon you to his property in Austria," the brave man said as the timid man reached inside his coat and presented the towering man with a letter. "It is of the gravest matter that you, and your associates, meet him to discuss matters of security and estate immediately."

The giant man delicately opened the letter and read it, occasionally whispering the words in English. "I shall summon the others," he said through his thick white beard.

"No need Mister North, others have been dispatched in advance to accommodate Mister M's wishes."

"Then I shall leave immediately!"

"How will you be arriving Mister North?" the timid man asked as the massive man strode away. "Boat or train?"

He turned around and said, with a twinkle in his eyes, "Dirigible."

* * *

It was approaching the morning in London. The sky was still dark, the birds were not singing, and the rest of the people (apart from the sailors arriving from all parts of the globe) were still resting in their beds.

A short and stout man, dressed in a very light yellow buttoned shirt, carefully crushed some herbs and minerals together. He then took the composite, mixed it with a dark green solution, and placed it in an iron chamber resting inside the fireplace. He sighed and put his hands near the flames, warming it up from the chilly weather that has recently flown in.

The Wonderful Society of Apothecaries has been especially anxious to find out the work that Sanderson has been focusing upon for the past year or so. Their generous funding, provisional laboratory space, and procurement of rare and dangerous materials have been greatly appreciated by Sanderson. Without their assistance, his work would have been stalled indefinitely. After all, how could he honestly acquire Italian gunpowder and gypsum without spending a small fortune?

He was so close, his work would soon show light on transmutational properties! If only he could get one alchemical experiment to work.

Well correction, he has been extremely successful in preforming alchemy. He found a terrible wine from Turkish vineyards and, with alchemical techniques, made it indistinguishable from the finest wine from the Provence region in France! It tastes the same, looks the same, smells the same, everything is the same! The most esteemed statesmen nor the most experienced tavern owners could tell the difference!

But he could not, for the life of him, explain the laws of nature the govern the alchemical processes! He has studied the work of the chemists, the alchemists before, the apothecaries before that, and (even though it greatly pained him as an empiricist) metaphysical philosophers before that!

He sighed and hoped that this reaction would yield a result useful to him. He was on the hundredth hypothesis, and silently prayed to God, "If there is no law to be observed or understood, send me a sign! Send me something that shall forever distract me from my work and occupy my time with something equally as complicated and stressful!"

There was a swift knocking upon the door which suddenly shook Sanderson out of his plea. He walked over to the door and stopped before opening it. Although the peephole was far above him, he crafted a makeshift telescope so even he could see through it.

As he looked through, he noticed two men both wearing a crescent shaped badge that shone dully in the gaslight outside.

He swiftly opened the door and gestured for them to enter.

The two men both bowed slightly and handed him a letter with a golden seal embossed upon it. Sanderson looked at it with some suspicion and opened it.

As he read through it quickly, his eyes widened. He looked back at his fireplace, the iron box now red hot and a strange purple smoke wafting out of the holes he drilled in, and back at the fireplace. He sighed and grabbed a bucket of water near the fireplace and put out the burning logs in it. He looked to the heavens and thought that God has a strange way of presenting Himself to the mortals below.

The men directed Sanderson to a carriage and they departed to the Alps to address an urgent and pressing matter.

* * *

A single man was furiously fanning himself. Although the scenery of these Sumatran Islands were the stuff of legends, greens so vibrant that they can only exist in Elysian fields and blues so deep that only Odysseus could have sailed and Homer could have imagined, this place was also intolerably moist and hot. The noon time sun beat down upon him with a thousand whips and the moist air clung to his lungs and throat with such tenacity, one could have only imagined it was forming some disgusting phlegm within him.

And before he thought that the crew would never find their destination, he saw it in front of him. The castle of Punjam Hy Loo. A castle so beautiful that it must have been built out of the most precious gems, the most pure gold, and the most fantastic ivory.

The ship approached a dock made of stones and wood and the man took note of all of the other smaller boats flying in and out of the port. Each one was just as colorful as the jungle flora described in the numerous travelogues and botanical sources.

But as they cast anchor and dropped a plank to walk off the boat, twenty men, all clothed in a deep green and armed with polished steel scimitars ran up the plank and boarded the boat.

The crew pulled out their own swords and prepared for a battle but the man anticipated such a reaction and opened a scroll he hid in his pocket. He unwound the scroll to arms length and let the boarders look at the message.

It was written in a language he could not obviously understand or speak but thanks to numerous Orientalist scholars and linguists, he did not need to speak or read their language. A pity too, considering that English is the most profitable language and the most civilized language of all.

The men put away their swords and said something that he could not understand. But judging from their gesticulations, he assumed that they were taking him to the palace.

The walk to the palace was fairly short, after all the islands were not very large to begin with. The Royal family that owned these islands in Southeast Asia were very powerful and very wealthy. Fortunately, they were cunning and strong enough to establish themselves as traders and their islands as critical trading ports. Unfortunately, their recent son foolishly made an alliance with the Dutch, something that the Empire did not appreciate or agree with. So, in a show of force, the Empire thwarted the royal son and the youngest daughter, as the sole legitimate heiress to the throne, ascended to power.

She of course was a natural. She expanded trade, helped provide rare goods, and provided shelter to their navy. Her power has been challenged in the past, occasionally from the Chinese and other times from the Javanese, but so long as her alliance with the Empire stayed strong the Empire would support her as well.

The palace doors opened and revealed a beautiful courtyard within it. A pool of sapphire water suspended floating boats made of ivory. Birds were being taught to fly in certain manners and do certain tricks. Musicians were playing violins and dulcimers off to the side.

"This Queen is very civilized," the man thought to himself.

The group of men guided him to a woman sitting upon a throne of gold who was speaking to a group of hooded men in some tongue that he could not identify. She then waved them away and sighed.

"Your highness," the man bowed, "I have a message from a certain benefactor."

"I know," she said in perfect English. The man was surprised to hear no accent warping or meddling in her words. "I have been informed by numerous sources that Mister M wishes for an audience with me, the Queen of Punjam Hy Loo, Toothiana. She brushed a black lock of hair out of her face, light brown like cinnamon bark or almonds fallen from the trees. "I shall entertain him as he has entertained me, but first I must attend to some matters of foreign state. A trading company would like to establish a formal agreement with my port and I must brush up on my French."

"Your highness," the man urged on. "Mister M requires your presence immediately," he took out a letter and held it out to her. One of the green hooded men took the letter from him, opened it, dusted a powder over it, and sniffed it. After he was done inspecting it, he handed it to the Queen.

She looked at it, at first in boredom but then her expression shifted to confusion. "I still do not understand."

"Mister M, in all of his wisdom and understanding, would not summon the Guardians if it was not important."

"Even then-"

"He does not request your presence, he does not ask for your attendance, he is summoning you," he growled.

Suddenly a sword appeared at his neck, ready to behead him for implying that the Queen was a dog being called by its master.

"Enough," the sword suddenly disappeared and returned to the sheathe of one of the hooded green men. "You are correct and I shall be at Mister M's estate immediately."

"If we leave now, we will be at Sri Lanka in three days time."

She laughed heartily and stood up from her throne. "Good sir, have you forgotten who I am? I am Toothiana! Queen of Punjam Hy Loo! I shall be there tonight! I would be there earlier but, considering I have to bring you back, I need some additional preparations." Her green eyes shimmered and her robes, adorned with numerous golden pieces, jangled mysteriously.

* * *

Five men, all on horseback, looked on the glowing orange landscape. The desert heat whipped about them and their horses were growing tired. The afternoon sun passed its zenith but the heat still remained and emanated off of the Earth.

They carried a flag with a yellow crescent stitched in with poor man's cotton and thread. Normally the flag would be more...esteemed but this place is savage territory. On one hand it was populated by men still living in the past, on the other hand it was colonized by men who acted violently or foolishly in the present. Who could imagine what Australia's future shall hold?

They heard a clap of thunder in the distance but not a single cloud was in the sky. Either it was magic or it was science. Neither could be disregarded as a possibility.

They raced towards the sound of the noise, each with a hand on the reigns and the other on a gun. At first they could not find the source of the noise but then the noise rang out again.

Someone had the good conscience of pulling out their telescope to find this mysterious individual and, with luck, they found a rifle sticking out of a tree in the distance. So they raced to it.

"Sir!" The flag bearer cried out. "Sir!"

The rifle turned on them and fired near the ground of one of the horses. The horse, startled, reared itself and fell down with its owner.

"Sir! We have a message for you!"

The rifle fell to the Earth and a tall man jumped out of the tree. "Oh bugger off will ya? You imperialists don't leave poor souls alone huh?"

"Sir," the flag bearer stuck the flag into the ground before he climbed off his horse. "We are not imperialists. We are the employees of Mister M."

"Oh! How's he doing? Does he still have that," he tapped his right foot rapidly, "that cough?"

"It is much worse nowadays Sir," the flag bearer said somberly.

"Oh," the man's face darkened.

"But we don't have time to talk about that," he walked towards the man and gave him an envelope with a golden stamp on the front.

The man opened the letter and read it to himself, pacing as he did so.

"We need to leave now."

"I need my things. I need my guns, my explosives, my machete..."

"We can split up into two groups. I can take you to Mister M immediately while the others go retrieve your weapons."

"Here," the man took out a piece of paper and a piece of charcoal. "This will let you in to my armory," he said as he scribbled on the page.

"Thank you Mister Bunnymund. Now, are you ready to leave?"

"You won't be usin' that magic will ya?"

The flag bearer's face spelled out an apology as he took out a crystal orb with words inscribed in gold.

"Alright," he said with a breath of defeat. "Let's make this as painless as possible."

* * *

It was a beautiful morning in the Austrian Alps. The sun was peeking over the mountaintops, the snow glowed with a beautiful whiteness, and the grass still smelled of fresh dew and Easter.

Suddenly a bright globe materialized in the middle of a field nearby the mountains. It shone with the intensity of the noontime sun and scorched the grass beneath it. As the globe dissapeared as quickly as it formed, what remained was the flag bearer and Mister Bunnymund. The flag bearer was obviously more accustomed to this than Mister Bunnymund since he was still standing and Mister Bunnymund was on the floor, coughing madly.

"Ughh, I hate magic."

But as he looked up from his place on the floor, a flurry of green was swirling around only a few meters away from him. And what emerged out of the green was something that brought him to his feet.

"Mister E. Aster Bunnymund!" Toothiana proclaimed as she extended her arms for a hug. He embraced her and the golden beads and baubles stitched onto her dress jangled harmoniously. "How are you?"

"I'm fine ma'am."

"I doubt it, you look like you just jumped out of a portal."

"Nah," he wiped some of the sweat from his brow. "I was just in the Outback huntin' some wild and exotic beasts."

"Really now?" she quirked an eyebrow at him.

They both turned and saw a carriage pulling up to them. When it came close enough, a short and rather portly man jumped down.

"Sandy!" they both cried out.

He waved to them and then pointed upwards.

The two then saw a large balloon racing towards the Alps and then suddenly, some kind of pod dropping from the sky. Halfway through its descent, it deployed a parachute and gently floated to the bottom.

The three then ran to the mysterious pod and realized that it was a good friend of theirs.

"_Privet_ Mister North!"

"_Khoroshiye druz'ya utra_!" he shouted joyously as he finally touched the Earth. They all exchanged ecstatic hugs before they all realized that Mister M's men were quietly waiting for them to stop.

"Mister M has arranged for the observation room," one man said.

They all sighed collectively and followed the men to a lift on the side of the mountain. At the base was a carriage with a set of large wheels designed to scale the mountain and a set of tracks that went all the way up. The men opened the carriage and they were in awe of the spaciousness of it and the attention to its decor.

"Did Mister M make this?" Toothiana asked.

"Of course!" one of the men said as he pushed and pulled a number of levers. "He is very good at engineering and inventing things now."

"Even the pillows and rugs?" she jested.

"Perhaps not," another man replied.

The trip up the mountain was filled with reminiscing about the past and exchanging pleasantries. It is not every day that the Guardians are all present in a single room. So many adventures, so many battles, so many memories in this single place.

As they approached the top of the mountain, one man pulled back a large curtain to reveal a single large window with an iron chamber off to the side. It reminded Mister North of a toy box whereas it reminded Mister Sanderson of a crucible. The air

The Alps were all theirs to see but then it was obscured by another window that revealed a paling man talking to a number of others. The paling man looked like he was coughing but then another man brought him a glass of water. As he drank the glass of water, someone brought a sort of tube to him.

The man coughed into the tube and the voice could be heard in the carriage. "I thank you all for coming here upon such short notice. There is much to discuss, and unfortunately, much to take care of. As you may know, my condition forces me to live up in the heights of Grossglockner Mountain, one of the tallest mountains in Europe, perhaps even the world! Regardless, time is running short and we must discuss something disturbing and perhaps frightening."

A man brought Mister North a similar tube and gestured for him to speak into it. "It is quite alright Mister M," Mister North replied. "Why have you summoned the Guardians?"

A person brought Mister M a chair to sit on but he rejected it and continued speaking. "In the early days of Empire, the affairs of the state rested solely in the domestic. But, as the engines that fuel our coffers grew, so did the delinquency and defiance of our people. There is of course a healthy degree of disagreement but that of which endangers the trade, security, and general health of the Empire must be stopped. Therefore, prisons were created.

"So it follows that in the early days of Empire, the Monarchs agreed to create the prison system. But where there are criminals there must be lawmakers to create laws, constables to enforce the laws, and judges and lawyers to administer the laws. But with the administration of a massive prison system, a new profession was necessary: that of the warden.

"Mister P. Black was one of those first wardens in the early days of Empire. He was a skilled soldier who fought valiantly in India but was not skilled enough as to rise to the rank of general or something more illustrious. He acquired the position of warden sometime afterwards, with some thanks to his military service, and was quite good at it from numerous accounts.

"Mister Black's talent was his ability to quell the prisoners into behaving through some means of influence. They exhibited forms of sobriety and lethargy, a refreshing comparison to the constant whining and aggressiveness seen in other prisons throughout the Empire. Although there were never indications of physical torture, something that was quite well used in the early days, the prisoners would always exhibit some form of self harm or depreciation. Cutting, bruising, or scratching upon the stone walls were very common in Mister Black's prisoners.

"He was then noticed immediately by the Empire was commissioned to manage one of the mill towns in the Scottish Lowlands. Again, sobriety and lethargy were common but also a strange deficiency of children being birthed and an unusual frequency of malnourishment amongst all people.

"And these symptoms continued to exhibit themselves throughout the Lowlands as they continued downriver, upriver, through the forests, and into the unpopulated farmlands, and to some extent in the metropolitan areas.

"I have heard some rumors throughout the Empire that Mister Black is planning something. He has been accumulating a concerning degree of wealth from his far flung and exotic investments, he has been extending his contacts to other Imperial courts, and he has been gathering some kind of mercinary force. I have a feeling that he may be plotting some sort of insurrection and you must stop him. Either do it for the Empire or do it because his powers of influencing the nonphysical, the metaphysik, and the human soul itself threaten mankind as a whole; but I ask that you do something."

The four looked at each other before Mister North stepped forward, "We will stop Mister Black."

Mister M smiled softly, a gentle curl forming around his blue lips. "Thank you, all of you. But know that you cannot do this alone. You must work with each other, as you have in the past, but also work with another person."

"Who?"

"Someone in the Wild West has been causing a bit of a stir, Dakota I believe." Mister M put a piece of paper in a bronze tube and pushed it into the chamber that connected both the observation room with the main room. It hissed as Aster opened the chamber releasing the rarified air. He carefully twisted open the tube and pulled out the paper. His eyebrows shot up in disbelief, "Absolutely not. We don't need 'is help."

"Who is it Aster?" Toothiana asked.

Sandy snatched the piece of paper out of his hand and he, North, and Toothiana inspected it.

"We don't need the help of some know-nothing tramp. He's a menace."

"Is this the boy that put you behind a few days on that railroad you are funding?" Toothiana asked.

"Yes, but that's not the point! He's dangerous, he has no control, he's wild and feral!"

"And living with the Aborigines has not done the same for you?" she quipped back.

"That's different. I came back. I went to uni. I became a businessman."

"Who hunts for pleasure."

"And you can't say the same for yourself missy?"

"Enough! Both of you!" Mister M shouted through the glass partition. "You can both sort out your qualms later, but it is decided. Find this boy, tell him of my intent, and return with or without him."

"Understood," they all chanted.

"The eve of the Empire approaches and it is well anticipated that we shall fight through the dark. But whether we are all freemen or we are all slaves can only be determined by that boy."

Aster gritted his teeth and growled, "Goddamn you Jack Frost."

* * *

**Author's Notes**: Wow, it's been a really long time since I've come back here. I mean, it's really been a LONG time but I just saw Rise of the Guardians a few days ago and I was just really inspired! Anyway, I'm a bit rusty in writing fanfiction but I hope everyone sticks around for more!

(And as always) **Reviews Returned!**


	2. Chapter 2

The sky was a clear blue as passenger ship made of aged steel and iron cut through the Atlantic Ocean. It coughed out dark plumes of smoke every once and a while but it did nothing to spoil the wonderful weather.

"So who exactly is Jack Frost?" Mister North asked as scratched something into his notebook. The Guardians were collectively sitting in the deck taking in a bit of the sun. Mister Sanderson was trying to feed a seagull his piece of bread whereas Queen Toothiana was observing the vast emptiness of the sea.

"Some bugger who messed with the wrong mate."

"Well that's not very specific."

"What did he do?

"How 'bout we stop askin' questions and start by figurin' out how to get this kid," Mister Bunnymund said irritably. "Mister M said that he's in the Dakota territory but that's a lot of nothin' out there."

"Do not worry," Mister North closed his notebook. "I have a few people looking for him."

"How?" Mister Bunnymund asked suspiciously.

"Dakota is mostly cold forests and wide lands, sounds much like Russia, no?"

"But even then there is an unsurprising lack of metropolitan centers, railroads, and linkage in general," Toothiana said before turning to face Mister North. "How can we hope to find someone if no one is around to see them?"

"Again, do not worry. My men are skilled trackers and every living thing, beast or gentleman, leaves a trail."

* * *

A quiet snow fell on the small town of Colfax. The dark clouds above permitted no sunlight to pass through, but such was not unexpected. After all, it was late February and the snow was supposed to continue until April or May. The German immigrants farming and tilling the land were still adapting to this new soil, slowly readjusting to this side of the Earth and its patterns.

A boy, was watching from the rooftops of Colfax. He hid behind one of the chimney stacks and felt the heat emanate from the fire beneath and travel upwards. Most people did not bother to look on the rooftops, after all they were just for birds and owls who wanted to take some refuge before heading out to their homes in the South. This boy waited for the church bell to ring and grew tired of waiting. So instead, he watched the sunrise gently peek over the vast flatness of the North Dakota territory. It was empty for as far as the eye could see, unless you turned your head around and saw the forest to the North. He knew that the lumberjacks were still having a bit of trouble trying to cut down the trees in the land to the North. Colfax was supposedly getting more settlers and they needed more land for farming potatoes and cabbage and other vegetables he did not enjoy personally.

As the sun tried to push itself through the clouds, the boy had a bit of hope. Perhaps the first sun of the new year could finally be seen! Perhaps the first signs of warmth could be shown! Perhaps this dark and gloomy weather, which plagued Colfax since the beginnings of November could finally be thrown out!

But alas, the sun did not. The boy slumped down into his seat and sighed. But before he could think of anything else, the church bell rang out seven times.

He jumped behind the chimney and watched from across the town square. Here he could clearly see the town hall and his handy work from the night before.

The mayor of Colfax had the audacity to call a town meeting last night to discuss the new town policy towards beggars and vagabonds! Not to say that he was either of the two but still! He made it sound like any person who matched such a description was to be chased out like some kind of criminal and he was no criminal by any stretch of the imagination.

Although, he did wander from town to town. At one point he somehow forgot where he was from...

The mayor waltzed out of the town hall, considering that is where he slept nowadays, and as he stepped onto the cobblestone streets, he cried out and a large thud could be heard throughout the little town of Colfax.

The major struggled to get up on his feet and looked around the streets. Normally, he would imagine that it was the bad weather but after that mysterious-

"Hey! You up there!" The mayor pointed at the rooftop where the boy was hiding. "Did you do this mischievous thing?"

The boy leapt from his place on the rooftop to another rooftop, keeping his eye on the mayor.

"Come back here you deviant!"

The boy laughed as he dropped down to the dirt street, feet prickling as it felt the frost on the ground.

Suddenly his laughter stopped when the mayor fired a shot into the sky. "Hah! You're in for it now, boy!"

The boy started running as quickly as he could towards the forest. Behind him he could hear the cries of the mayor calling for others to pick up their arms.

He got out of the main part of town and began running into one of the potato fields. It was a risky move, there being no cover and all, but it was one worth taking. He nearly tripped and fell a few times but continued to push forwards. A crack of thunder rang out behind him and he felt a potato explode behind him. The mayor was a damn good shot, considering he fought for the war a few years ago.

He jumped over a fence and ran into the forest. As he turned around, a bullet lodged itself into the tree next to him. That was a perfectly good sign that it was time for him to leave.

He heard the angry shouts of the mayor as he climbed over a rock and slid down a hollow tree trunk. Then he jumped up and hooked left and swerved around some tall trees, occasionally brushing up against a shrub and shaking off its newly collected snow.

He leaned up against a fallen tree and sighed. It was getting boring in Colfax and the nearest town was perhaps three days away. He could stay for a bit and try to befriend some of the townspeople; but then again, the mayor clearly expressed his...aggravation towards him. Perhaps he could befriend those loggers on the edge of the woods? They didn't notice him sleeping in their woodshed for the past week, maybe they actually cared about his well being?

As he walked up a hill, he saw the shepherd's staff he planted when he first came here. The staff was a good luck charm. Whenever he had it, he seemed to be invisible. He could blend into any crowd, hide in any shadow, and escape any pursuer. But who wants to be invisible all the time?

As his hand caressed the aged wood, the grooves etched before he could even remember, he heard footsteps in the distance. He pulled it out of the ground and he felt himself sway slightly, dizzy from its magic, if there was even such a thing. He ran to a bush and hid behind it.

The footsteps were gone and for a moment, the boy felt safe in the winter emptiness.

Suddenly two hands hoisted him up and tossed him against an nearby tree trunk. His vision was swimming but before he could do anything, he was thrown into a large burlap sack.

The boy could barely make out two voices from inside the bag but even then what he heard was not very useful.

"_Vy pomnite kak ispol'zovat' shar_?" one man asked.

"_Konechno ya delayu! Teper' dayte mne nomer inache ya budu teleportirovat' nas oboikh v Meksiku_!" the other angrily responded.

The boy heard a bang and then a strange hissing noise, like someone dumped water onto a hot iron. Then he felt like he was being twisted and turned from the inside out before hitting a remarkably wooden floor, as compared to the cold and snowy earth of the forest.

He tried to collect himself and carefully exited the sack. What he found was something he could not even imagine or even begin to understand.

There was a big man with a white beard that nearly touched his belly. He was laughing, belly bobbing up and down with each laugh, with a much smaller man next to him. This man reminded the boy of a yellow ball since he was, after all, quite round and quite short. Then he looked to his left and a very tall man was trying to clean his rifle. A little more to his left were even more rifles and swords and things. The boy made a quick mental note not to talk to him.

"North!" A woman's voice caught his attention. "Look! The boy! He's awake!"

The boy tried to stand up but he felt a strange swaying in his body. He looked to his right and saw what he thought was a painting of the ocean but he realized that it looked too real to be a painting. After all, paintings did not show clouds, seagulls, and the occasional boat moving at a constant speed. As he tried to orient himself on, what he assumed was a boat, he saw a woman, both beautiful and esteemed, walking towards him with a wet towel and a bandage.

"I hope your men did not hurt the boy. Let me take a look at you," she said while inspecting his scalp for bleeding and his skin for bruising. "My lord! You are cold! Well, I guess that what happens when you live in the cold nothingness of Dakota."

"Oy, don't baby him Tooth," the living armory said in what the boy thought was a Cockney accent.

"But he's so pale! And his hair is so...white?" The beautiful woman reeled back after touching a lock of his hair.

"He ain't sick," the armory spat, "he's a sickness."

"Fuck you Brit," the boy spat out.

The man stood up from his leather chair and picked up one of the very shiny and, probably, very sharp machetes laying close to him. "What you say boy'o?" he said while inspecting the tip of the blade.

"Don't you have a war to lose in Afghanistan?" the boy snipped. Although he would never say this in public, he was glad that he paid attention during grade school when the schoolteacher talked about the British failures in Asia.

The man smirked at the boy's wit but then stuck the machete into the wooden floorboards, ran to where the boy stood, and punched him square in the gut.

"Pip pip cheerio, crumpets, Union Jacks, and all that other bullshit," the man said in an exaggerated Cockney accent while doing a bit of a chimney sweep dance.

The short man drew a circle in the air and suddenly a big beautiful wooden sign, with both beautiful engravings and impressions carved in, materialized out of the floorboards and read, in equally beautiful engravings and impressions, "Stop."

"Thank you Sandy," the tall man said before walking to the boy. "Are you alright?" he asked before offering a hand to help him up.

The boy rejected it and used his foot to fish out his staff from the sack. He waved it around threateningly before shouting out, "No! This Redcoat over here just punched me in the face!"

"If I punched you in the face, you wouldn't 'ave one left!"

The short one named Sandy hit him on calf with a rolled up newspaper and shot him a scolding look.

"I'm sorry for my friend's rudeness," the tall man said apologetically.

"Some friends you have," the boy said as he dusted off some imaginary dust off of his brown pants and his blue shirt.

"My name is Nicholas St. North, famed Russian industrialist!"

"Never heard of you."

Mister North clearly did not hear the boy's comment and continued. "The lovely madame is Queen Toothiana, heiress of the Punjam Hy Loo throne and ruler of the seven Sumatran Islands. The smart man with the newspaper is Doctor Sanderson MacSnoozie, master of medical science and research at the Wonderful Society of Apothecaries in London."

"And the guy who sounds like the King of England?"

"I'm E. Aster Bunnymund. And I ain't British," he prodded a finger into the boy's chest. "I'm Australian"

"So what's all this? Some kind of fancy club for fancy people? If that's what it is, I shouldn't be here."

"Oh but it's not just a club!" North said putting his hand on his shoulder. "We are much more than a club, we are the Guardians! An ancient order who protects man from the wild, the feral, the maligned, and the evil."

"So," the boy drew out the vowel. "You're a bunch of policemen?"

"Better than policemen!" North exclaimed.

"Ah forget it North, we're wastin' time. He's just some tramp who doesn't care about anyone but 'imself. He's a worthless, do-nothin', know-nothin' who can't tell the city from the-"

Before Mister Bunnymund could finish his sentence, the boy tapped his staff onto the floor and a thin veneer of ice formed in between Mister Bunnymund's feet. He looked down and saw some kind of point materializing in the center and jumped out of the way before a large icicle could shoot out of the ice and pierce the ceiling. Mister Bunnymund was completely dumbstruck by what just happened and looked at the boy who had some strange aether vibrating around his entire self, his entire being. The shallow cuts and grooves in his staff glowed a pale blue and a slight frost was forming at the base of his bare feet. He was ready to pull the trigger of the pea shooter he hid in his boot just in case, but there was a part of him that did not want to harm a child but there was a greater part of him that was ready to kill the little bastard.

"So that's why they call you Jack Frost," Queen Toothiana said with a glint in her eyes.

"Everyone back off," Jack said backing himself into a corner of the ship cabin. "What the Hell is going on here and who the Hell are you people?"

"We are the Guardians!" Mister North proclaimed.

"That doesn't answer anything! What do you want?"

Mister Sanderson waved at Queen Toothiana and began gesturing wildly with both of his hands, drawing invisible things in the air, occasionally forming shapes with his hands, and holding up a number of his fingers in random orders.

Queen Toothiana nodded and said in a soft voice, "Jack Frost, we need your help."

"For what?" Jack said suspiciously, still waving his staff at anyone who would try to take a step in his direction.

"We need your help to stop a very dangerous man named Mister Black. He wants to do something very bad but we do not know what yet. We were sent by our employer Magnous Lune to find you because he believes that you can help us."

"I don't think," Jack looked to the floor in a show of lack of confidence. "I don't think I can help you."

"Why not? You clearly have some sort of power and we-"

"Queen Toothiana," Mister North put a hand on her shoulder and whispered something to her. She sighed and gave a look as if she understood what he was saying. "Jack Frost, would you like to take a tour of the boat?"

"I don't think so."

"Alright then, we can stay inside and have this conversation in here."

Jack stood his ground, never letting go of the magic staff.

"The Guardians each have something to protect, something special that is in us that we strive to protect in others. At first, people see me as someone strong and brave, and inside that is someone daring and courageous, and inside that is someone mysterious and cunning, and inside that is someone caring and loving. But do you know what is inside all of that? Someone with the eyes of a child: eyes full of wonder! It is these eyes that help me see the world for what it can be not what it is! I can see a thousand games of chess on that chess board, I can see a hundred combinations on that safe lock, and I can see a million battles before they even happen! I can see tomorrow before today is even over! That is what gives me strength and that is what gives me power. Before I became an inventor and industrialist, I was a general in the Russian army. I was successful in every battle and every conflict but I grew sick of bloodshed and the moans of pain. So I retired and became the man who you see today! Using my eyes, I made a bridge that connects the country to the city in my hometown. Using my eyes, I made a watermill that grinds flour better than the greatest stone mills of Denmark! I made this ship! I made the engine! I made the propeller! My eyes of wonder give me the strength to make my fight to change the world for the better possible! And when I see you, I see a boy yearning for a fight that was denied to him. I see a chance to fight the good fight. I see a chance for you to prove to yourself that you deserve the power given to you by God."

"How can you know any of that? How can you see any of that, in me?"

"These eyes are a gift and I learn to use my gift to help the world, to change the world, to make it a safer place. It is only reasonable that your gift would be the same."

There was a quick knock on the cabin door.

"Enter!" Mister North shouted.

A shipmate opened the door and said shyly, "I'm sorry to interrupt but you have a telegram Queen Toothiana."

"Thank you." She began to read it but her face darkened and a frown curled at the edge of her lips. "North, we need to get back to Punjam Hy Loo."

"Why? What is going on?"

"Some of my agents noted a disturbing presence of steam cruisers off of the coast of Indochina."

"So? Those may be the Empire's," Aster said from his leather chair.

"No," she replied with a concerned tone. "They are not flying Imperial colors. They are flying black flags."

"What does that mean?" Jack asked aloud.

"It means that they're either pirates or they work Mister Black," Aster said grimly.

"North," she turned and faced Mister North, fear in her eyes. "We need to hurry! Who knows how much time we have? Who knows how much damage they can unleash before we arrive?"

"I have just the solution. Follow me to the cargo bay, and Aster, we'll help you carry your things down there."

"What's going on?" one of the shipmates asked.

"Open the ship's mouth! We're flying out of here!"

"But North!" Queen Toothiana said, golden beads causing a loud and irritable clatter. "We don't have time to take the dirigible!"

"I know!" he said as he pointed his finger to the air. "So we must take something faster than that!"

"What could possibly be faster than a coal powered balloon?"

"Something I like to call the 'Aerowing!'"

As the five of them entered the cargo bay, a giant metal needle, perhaps fifty meters long, was suspended by numerous cables and belts with two undecorated triangles on each side, each perhaps both twenty meters in length. The shipmates were already loading Mister Bunnymund's and Mister Sanderson's equipment into the needle by climbing up a ladder near the head of the needle.

The four cautiously followed Mister North towards the face of this "Areowing" and listened attentively as he explained what it was and what it could do, theoretically.

"I have expiremented with different kinds of gunpowder and concluded that a combination of sulfuric explosives and nitrogenous explosives could provide such a burst of force that would jettison an object, provided there is enough initial force and there is a sustained propulsion while in the air."

"North," Mister Bunnymund said with trepidation. "It looks like a big rocket."

"With wings!" Mister North exclaimed.

"Does it work?" Queen Toothiana asked eagerly.

"Of course it does! Now get inside!"

"I'll take the train," Mister Bunnymund said confidently. "And the steamboat. And the cruiser."

"We do not have time for this Aster! Get inside!" North said before taking hold of his hunting jacket and pulling him into the cockpit of the Aerowing.

The inside was much more spacious than Jack imagined. The Aerowing was tall enough to facilitate Mister North without hitting his head and it was wide enough to seat two people in a row! The seats were made of some red fabric and cushioning but he paid no attention to it as he took a seat in the third row next to Mister Sanderson.

"North?" Mister Bunnymund asked with a bit of trepidation in his voice. "How do you know that we won't fly out of our seats and all the way into the back of this thing when you pull the fuse?"

"Don't worry Aster! That only happened once!" Mister North laughed as he took his place in the pilot's seat.

"That's not helping!"

"Relax Mister Bunnymund," Queen Toothiana said as she took the seat next to him. "I am sure that Mister North would not endanger us with a device that has not been fully tested and designed to keep its passengers safe; am I correct Mister North?"

"Hmm?" he replied as he was pulling and pushing numerous knobs and buttons. "Oh yes! I completely agree with whatever you just said!"

Mister Bunnymund nearly fainted into his seat.

"Alright then, we are preparing to leave in ten seconds! Open the boat!"

Jack turned to his left and saw Mister Sanderson clapping enthusiastically but then looked forward and saw Queen Toothiana trying to placate Mister Bunnymund.

"Five seconds!" North shouted before closing the cockpit.

"I never imagined I'd die in a fiery explosion," Mister Bunnymund lamented. "I thought I'd die in a fight against a crocodile, a stingray, and an ostrich."

"Three seconds!"

"We are going to be fine," Queen Toothiana said through a somewhat uncertain smile.

"Two!"

Mister Sanderson was still clapping.

"One!"

Jack honestly did not know what to think.

"Blastoff!"

And suddenly an earth shattering bang sounded behind them and the five of them could feel a thousand invisible forces pulling back upon their bodies. The Areowing snapped the chains and belts that suspended it in the air and raced out of the boat's mouth and into the Atlantic air. There was a collective screaming, sans Mister North and Mister Sanderson, as the Aerowing raced above the waves. Then an frigate appeared in the distance and there was an even greater collective screaming but Mister North, in his ever inventive self, made of such a danger long before today. He pulled a lever to his left and the wings adjusted themselves slightly causing the Aerowing to pull up dramatically. They may have hit the frigate but they only hit the flag at the top of the frigate; so technically, they did not hit the frigate.

"Next stop! Punjam Hy Loo!" Mister North shouted above the roar of the gunpowder rockets.

It was upon this day, February 21st of the year 1883, that the citizens of the city of New York supposedly saw an albatross with such a horrid diet that its flatulence was a dark black streak in the clear blue skies. It was also upon this day that mayor Franklin Edson entertained the possibility of creating a law that prohibited feeding of the local seafaring birds. This train of thought was interrupted by the more pressing concerns of building a bridge so spectacular that it would soon connect Manhattan and Brooklyn.

* * *

**A/N: WOW! Thank you for everyone who fav'ed the story or is following or left a review or some combination of all three! And a really big thank you to everyone who's reading in general! Just knowing that people are reading makes me really happy and I don't know how else to put it! I'm just really happy! :D**

**I'm sorry if I'm a bit slow on returning reviews! I'm trying to find some balance between procrastinating for finals, studying for finals, and reading all this awesome RotG fanfic but I promise to review you back soon!**

**Review and tell me what you think! Or if you're shy, send me a PM!**


	3. Chapter 3

The Aerowing passed over the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, and chased the rising sun. Mister Bunnymund stabilized after hyperventilating into a bag made of cheap hemp and decided to take a nap. He thought that the only place safe from the chaos of Mister North's Aerowing would be his dreams and to some degree he was correct. He fell fast asleep, snoring as loudly as humanly possible.

"Mister North," Queen Toothiana asked from her seat, not daring to stand up while the machine was in motion. "How long will it take before we reach Punjam Hy Loo? I grow anxious at the thought that Mister Black's forces may unleash some unholy wrath and my men suffer while I remain here."

"We will approach the Sumatran Islands in about an hour. And your men, they are extremely well trained! I am sure they will be just fine."

"Let us hope that you are correct."

"Hope? But I am! Your men are the strongest, cleverest, and most skilled fighters-"

"Outside the Empire," Queen Toothiana interrupted. "I fear, with a respectable degree of legitimacy, that my men will meet their match today. I wish that I purchased those gatling guns from the Americans. I hate the sound of gunshots but perhaps the sense of security is worth the annoyance."

After some period of time, they were fast approaching Punjam Hy Loo. Queen Toothiana's eyes widened at the sight of certain islands that sported large stone temples and thick jungles. She tapped her feet, played with the golden beads sown into her gown, and occasionally muttered something in an Oriental language that Jack could not understand.

"North?" she asked in an agitated voice. "How close are we?"

"Five minutes!"

"I wonder how much has happened? How many men have died upon my shores?"

"Beginning descent!" Mister North shouted as he pulled a lever to his side. The Aerowing shook and Mister Bunnymund jumped out of his seat.

"What's goin' on!" Mister Bunnymund nearly shrieked, drawing a small hunting knife from his vest.

"We are now five thousand feet off of the water Aster!"

"How does this thing land, North?"

"Although I have thought of some sort of aquatic landing gear, I never actually developed any sort of device."

"So how are we going to land?" Mister Bunnymund asked through gritted teeth.

"Ahh, improvisation?" Mister North said bashfully.

"I swear North, if I die today, I'm gonna' drag you down to whatever Hell I've been sentenced to."

Mister North pulled a chain above his head and they could all feel a thousand invisible forces pull them forward. It was by some miracle that they did not fly out of the front window of the Aerowing. The could feel the bottom of the machine hit the waves, the water crashing around them, and then the slowing of the Aerowing as it faced the resistance of the ocean. Everyone bobbed up and down in their seats, trying to feel for some stability in the giant metal and wood barrel that was floating, very precariously, in the ocean.

Mister North pushed the cockpit door open and let everyone out before he started to haul some of Mister Bunnymund's equipment from the back of the Aerowing.

Jack was suddenly taken off guard by two things. First, by some stroke of luck, the Aerowing actually landed on some kind of sandbank not too far off from one of the islands. No one would have to swim or paddle a dingy for some unbearable amount of time.

But the second thing completely amazed him. The brilliant sun was reflected off of such light blues, it was difficult to imagine that the ocean was separate from the sea. It was as if the same brush colored these two bodies! But how could that same painter, in their knowledge and power, have the tools to create such deep green jungles?

But then he saw something disturbing, a great ugly smoke peeking through the highest part of the island in front of him and a series of ironclad cruisers shelling the island with their cannons armed and guns blazing.

Queen Toothiana stepped out of the Aerowing and nearly fell to the sand at what she saw before her. As Mister Sanderson and Mister Bunnymund helped her up, her expression changed from terror and fear to something darker and more vicious.

"I have made a mistake taking Mister North's machine. I should have left on my own! I shall meet you at the palace for I assume that I have guests that were expecting me." She drew some kind of rapier from underneath her robes and walked towards the burning island.

"Jack! Help me carry these weapons to Aster!" North shouted.

As Jack turned his head, he felt a warm breeze rush around him. He turned around and Queen Toothiana was gone! How strange!

He snapped himself out of this trance and braced himself as Mister North tossed him a small crate of weapons and things. He lost his balance and fell down when the crate made contact with his chest.

"Too heavy for ya mate?" Mister Bunnymund smirked as he stood over him with one of his own crates in his arms.

"Fuck you," Jack spat.

Mister Bunnymund laughed and dropped the crate into the sand, just a bit from Jack's head. He whistled as he unpacked the numerous belts of bullets, the vast assortment of knives and general sharp things, and pieced the various guns together.

"Oy North?" he said as he dangled a revolver in his general direction. "Want one?"

"No thank you friend," Mister North said as he pulled out his own weapons, two heavy cutlasses with golden handles and strange Cyrillic engravings along the sides.

"How 'bout you Sandy?"

Mister Sanderson shook his head in disapproval and, instead, snapped his fingers together and watched a few thin sparks shoot out of his fingertips.

"Fair 'nough," he shrugged and began loading the revolver with some bullets.

"Alright," Mister North said with his chest puffed out. "We need to help Queen Toothiana as much as we can."

"Whatever she's doin' on her own, she can handle it," Mister Bunnymund said in agreement. "It's our job to make her job easier."

"That is why we need to do take back the main harbor, destroy those steamers, and meet her at the castle. The only way to the castle is up a path that starts in the harbor. If you take the path, then it is cake! If you do not take the path, then you face the jungle."

"If I know anythin', it's that these jungles are thick and gnarly; filled with snakes, tigers, and who knows what. You're insane if you try to fight through it all."

"Which means most of the invading force will collect in the harbor and walk right up to the castle! We control the harbor, we control who comes in and who stays out."

"It's goin' to be some fight when we get to the harbor. Lots of cover, unleveled ground, it's a hunter's dream."

"Then we'll go around the island and look for the cruisers. Since they cannot see into the jungle, they will either shoot straight at the palace or they will fire randomly into the jungle. It forces her own forces into a defensive position in the castle or forces them to attack throughout the island without any sort of coordination. An excellent but somewhat wasteful distraction. Sandy, do you have something that can destroy the ironclads?"

Mister Sanderson nodded excitedly and pulled out a little pouch with a symbol on it. At first glance it did not look like something but upon closer inspection it resembled a barrel with some letters scribbled on its front.

"After the steamers are taken care of, then we shall meet Queen Toothiana in the castle."

The three all nodded in unison. Mister Bunnymund put on his holster, sheathed his machete, cocked his hunting rifle, and loaded his shotgun; ready for a fight. Mister North inspected his two cutlasses and swung them around to get the feel of metal flying through the air. On the other hand Mister Sanderson and Jack both looked at each other without much to do. They had their wits and some extra things, Mister Sanderson with his pocket full of "stuff" and Jack with his staff, but their preparations were not nearly as impressive. Mister Sanderson was used to the feeling but Jack definitely felt out of place amongst a Russian swordsman and an Australian gunslinger.

"Ready?" Mister North asked.

"So are we just going to walk to the harbor?" Jack asked incredulously.

"Well," he scratched his head, "that was mostly the idea. The sand bank is only a few meters away from the shore and there we can just walk to the harbor."

"And get shot at along the way?"

"They can't shoot you if you're fast enough," Mister Bunnymund quipped.

Jack rolled his eyes and spun his staff in his hands. A dull blue glow radiated out of the staff and suddenly a cool fog swept over the islands.

"Excellent idea Jack!" Mister North exclaimed as he clapped Jack on the back. "Now we have the element of surprise! Let's not waste it!"

So the four of them began to cross the sandbar and onto the main island. The sounds of shouting, metal clashing against metal, and gunshots being fired sounded throughout the air despite the sudden change in weather. Jack felt the sand in between his toes, a once in a life opportunity for the boy. He was suddenly glad that he never wore shoes anymore but he was a bit saddened by the reality. He may never have this experience again and whatever memory that would be created on this day would be marred by battle and bloodshed.

He pushed the thought aside as they arrived on the main beach. He stayed behind the other Guardians, since they seemed to be familiar with this sort of scenario. His staff was at the ready, hands cold trying to control the magic within it that was ready to spring out and do some sort of damage.

They heard voices up ahead and Jack knew the tongue. "German," he thought to himself.

"_Die Eingeborenen setzen einen Kampf_!" one of the men laughed heartily.

"_Sie gehen, um ihren Willen bald verlieren!_" another laughed as well.

Jack turned to his side and noticed that Mister Bunnymund was gone. He heard a gunshot and they all raced ahead, worried that he was wounded or worse.

But when they got there they saw Mister Bunnymund standing over two bodies, blood staining the sands.

"Sandy," Mister Bunnymund threw leather gun holsters at him. "Do you think you can do something with that?"

Mister Sanderson wrapped his hands around the leather, twisting and wringing it until a strange yellow glow gently burst out of his fists. When he opened them, two long whips remained.

"I had a feeling you forgot yours at home, c'mon let's get to the harbor."

Mister Sanderson stuck his tongue out but internally thanked him. It was better to have alchemized something now rather than during the battle ahead. The fog was starting to break and probably would not have had a chance to do anything amongst the gunshots and sword fights.

They carefully walked to the harbor, weary of any other voices wandering throughout the fog. They eventually arrived at the harbor and hid behind one of the buildings that stood on the docks.

"I will stand in the middle of the harbor and take them head on, anyone want to join?" Mister north said with a smile.

Mister Sanderson held up his hand much like a child would in a schoolhouse.

"Thank you Sandy."

"I'll take cover in one of the buildings." Mister Bunnymund offered. "Maybe that one up there with the second story balcony."

"Excellent; and what about you Jack?"

"Yeah," Mister Bunnymund said as he cocked his rifle, "what are you goin' to do?"

"Uhh," he looked around to think of some kind of plan. "I'll make an ice wall on the other side of the harbor so they don't attack us on both sides."

"Good thinking! That will force them to go through the jungle, and possibly get lost, or force them all the way around the island which will buy us lots of time! Alright everyone, let's hurry!"

Jack ran to the opposite side of the harbor and suddenly regretted his outburst. He didn't know how to make a wall of thick ice! He barely knew how to use his powers in the first place! It all just happened without any of his control, or if it did happen upon his will and command, then it was a small thing such as creating a snowball or flinging icicles. But now was not the time to fear, now is the time to act.

Mister Bunnymund ran to the two story building and hid outside the doorway. He was ready to enter and set up his rifle but he heard voices inside, voices that were speaking a distinctly European language rather than an Oriental one. He pulled out the hunting knife in his boot and took a deep breath before going inside.

He walked in and saw no one on the first floor. The building itself was only a room stacked on top of another room, perhaps for trading and assigning tariffs, so he was safe for now. But then he heard the voices descending some staircase behind a wooden door. He hid next to the doorway and prepared his knife. When the door opened, he swung his knife to his side and felt the contact of flesh on his knife. He quickly withdrew it and before the second person could shout, he threw the blade into the man's throat and watched it make contact. Both men were on the floor, coughing up blood and choking out words in German but Mister Bunnymund could not let them continue to make more noise and reveal his presence to the others. So he took the hunting knife, still lodged in the man's throat and jerked it to the side effectively slashing his throat open.

"Sorry bud," he said as he drove his knife into the first man's throat and cut it open as well.

He could still hear a voice above but it sounded like whistling or some kind of singing. He cautiously walked up the stairs and prepared to attack whoever was left.

The door was open and he could see a man staring at a painting. "This is going to be easy," he thought to himself. So he simply walked up to the man, not caring if he heard his footsteps.

"_Hanz? Zurück aus dem Bad schon?_" the man said without turning around. Then he felt something in his neck and cautiously touched the irritating thing. But as he looked at his hands and saw that they were covered in blood, his neck was cut open by Mister Bunnymund's knife. He fell to the floor without making a protest.

He drew open the curtains and opened the window. As he pulled out his rifle, he saw Mister North and Mister Sanderson in the middle of the harbor. The two waved at him, swords and whips in hand, and he smirked. It was just like the old times.

Jack, on the other hand, was nearly shaking. His feet were in the sand, his staff was at the ready, and he could feel a bead of sweat already forming. He needed to concentrate. The fog was already clearing and he needed to do good on what he set out to do.

So he felt the prickling in his hands and he gripped his shepherd's staff tightly and waved it at the ground in front of him. A thin layer of frost formed on the sandy beach and he focused even more. One spot on the beach had a hill of ice forming so Jack pointed his staff directly at that little mound. The hill grew to about three feet or so, a good start, but then he realized that there was much more of the beach to cover! He took a deep breath and began the process again; he picked a spot in the frost, aimed his staff, and watched the tiny spot become thick with ice.

"_Ich kann nicht warten, bis aus dieser Hitze!_" a voice called out in the fog.

"_Das erste, was ich tun werde, wenn ich wieder in Kreuzberg zu erhalten, ist eine heiße Platte der Currywurst,_" another voice replied.

Jack was worried now. He clearly did not create a thick wall of ice to divert the soldiers, a group of soldiers were obviously on their way, and he was not prepared to deal with any of this! He did not have a bone to pick with any of these guys but the truth of the matter was that they would probably not care if Jack was on their side or not. They would probably assume that he was some random enemy, albeit a funny looking one, and fight him anyway.

Suddenly out of the fog, three soldiers in black uniforms emerged with their own swords and pistols shining in the blocked out light.

_"Ihr da! Sind Sie Freund oder Feind?"_ one soldier shouted with a hand on his sword.

Jack held his staff tight and swung it upwards and a cone of ice enveloped the approaching soldier's feet.

"_Er ist einer von ihnen! Tötet ihn!_" the immobilized soldier shouted.

The other two men ran forward but Jack swept the crook of his staff low on the ground and a hump of ice formed out of the frosty sand which caused the other two men to trip and fall face first into the ground.

Jack relished in his victory, he clearly had this whole fighting thing under control.

"_Hilfe! Es gibt ein Eis Dämon unter uns!_" the man with his feet frozen together shouted.

And at that call, five more men came rushing out of the fog. Jack saw the sunlight breaking through the mist but he had a newfound sense of confidence that he could fight off the mercenaries.

Jack held up his staff, brought his arms behind his head, and slammed the curve of the staff into the ground as hard as he could. The result? A medium sized hill of ice popped up underneath the sand where the five men were standing. Three of them fell down after losing their balance, the other two were stumbling on the slippery surface but eventually fell down into the sand as well. He took the precaution of gently swinging his staff close to the ground which wrapped the five men in a coat of ice which they could not escape out of.

Back at the harbor, the fog finally passed.

"Come at me you Hessians!" Mister North shouted into the wind. "Come at me and fight!"

And at that moment ten German mercenaries, clad in black uniforms, charged Mister North and Mister Sanderson head on with bayonets and swords. Mister North laughed and met them halfway as he used his left cutlass to parry their attack and he used his right cutlass to stab one of the men in the chest. He felt the soldier grasp at the blade but he smirked and quickly withdrew the sword out and use it to skewer another man next to him.

Mister Sanderson saw four men running from the docks that connected two boats to the harbor and he rolled his shoulders back. He then focused in on one men, gripped his whips tight, and waited for them to be close enough. When he could see the brass buttons on their uniforms, he swung one of his whips at one of the men and watched it break the skin on his face. He furrowed his eyebrows and did the same to one of the men next to him and heard him scream out in pain. The remaining two were aiming their rifles at Mister Sanderson but he swung both of the whips at their guns, knocking them out of their hands and into the water. He motioned for the whips to spin around his head and then snapped them forwards. He felt the resistance as they grabbed onto the men individually and he slammed them into the side of the dock building. There was a crack against the stone surface and a red blotch on the wall; Mister Sanderson tried not to pay attention to the details and returned his focus on North.

Mister North had successfully killed six of the mercenaries but was surprised to see four of them lined up to make a firing line. Before they could even fire, four shots in quick succession perceived their skulls and they all crumpled to the ground. He looked up to the second story window and saw Mister Bunnymund give him a thumbs up. Mister North graciously returned the gesture.

Then coming in from the West side of the harbor, the side Jack was not dealing with, twenty men ran in with their rifles loaded and swords drawn.

Mister Sanderson ran to Mister North's side and whipped at two of them, cutting through their cloth uniforms and leaving deep bloody wounds. He swung at one man's leg and watched as he fell down and wrapped the wound with his hands. Then he swung at two others, one in the chest and another on the arm, and heard them cry out and drop their guns at the sharp pain.

Mister North then charged the group head on, gunshots from Mister Bunnymund, assisting him, and hacked at the linesmen. They tried to put up a fight with their swords but Mister North left massive dents in them, his superior metal obviously stronger and much denser than their mass produced product. He punched in a man's nose with the hilt of his cutlass, the bloodcurdling crack clear as day, and kicked his body in the path of two other men. Their fear paralyzed them as he ran at them and brought his two cutlasses down into the meat of their shoulders. They cried out in pain and clawed at the swords and the wounds they both received but Mister North pulled out the cutlasses and thrusted the blades into their hearts. Two more tried to attack Mister North with their own swords but he simply let one man run into the blade of his right cutlass and use his left one to swing into the side of the other man.

Mister North looked around and saw that there were only ten bodies on the floor and shouted at Mister Bunnymund. "Friend! They've found your position!"

Mister Bunnymund saw the mercenaries charging with their guns to the building he was hiding in so he carefully aimed at the group. He was able to get three head shots, blood splattering when the bullet soared through their skulls, but he knew that he would not be able to get them all. So he pulled out of his rucksack two little balls, the size of cricket balls, made of iron and a pocketbook of lucifer matches. He waited for the men to get close enough, lit one of the balls, and threw it at the group of men. It exploded and Mister Bunnymund marveled at his new redesign of the grenade. It was stronger, required less gunpowder, and had much more impact than previous designs judging from the thick burn marks and the lack of limbs on some of the mercenaries.

Meanwhile, Jack was busy on the beach trying to deal with the steady flow of German mercenaries. The fog was nearly gone but he did not need to hide in its shadow. His skills were able to immobilize the soldiers and keep them from using their weapons or from approaching him at all!

Then the fog completely cleared and he saw a group of ten men make a line, bayonets drawn and ready. But to Jack's surprise, they did not fire at him but rather ran away from their position. What emerged from the divide was something that completely terrified Jack; a tall, muscular man with a large piece of iron in his hands. He looked up at this massive mountain of a man and saw that he was wearing a black mask in the shape of a horse.

Jack swallowed his fear and swung his staff at the titan. He was able to knock over a few of the riflemen but the behemoth did not waver. In fact, the thing snarled at him and charged at him, rod of iron being dragged in the sand. So he did the only tactical thing possible.

He ran away.

He ran to Mister North and Mister Sanderson, who were finishing up a small skirmish between three other mercenaries, and helped them out by ensnaring their feet to the floor with a thick coating of ice. Mister North and Mister Sanderson were able to make quick work of them with Jack's assistance but immediately wondered why he was assisting them in the first place.

The turned around and saw him running for dear life from a gigantic man in a horse's mask chasing him with an iron bat. Mister Bunnymund tried to fire a few shots into the monster but the bullets left only tiny holes in his hide. Mister Sanderson tried to whip at him but he ended up wrapping one of his whips around the man's forearm which was then tugged on violently by the giant. He flew towards the man and was lay face down in the harbor's floor.

Mister North saw the monster of a man raise the iron bat above his head, ready to beat Mister Sanderson into a pulp, so he charged at him with his cutlasses. He attracted his attention and effectively dodged the iron bar when it slammed into the ground. He slashed at the monster's flesh but beneath it was a thick layer hard muscle.

Mister Bunnymund ran out of the building and shouted, "Get out of the way!" before he lit one of his grenades and lobbed it at the behemoth. Mister North picked up Mister Sanderson and ran as fast as he could away from the titan. The thing looked at a shiny dot approach him in the sky and blinked as it hit the center of his mask and burst in a fiery explosion.

Everyone watched the smoke clear, ready for some kind of fight, and watched the same monster stumble out of the haze. But instead of a horse's mask, half of a skull remained with a clearly charred brain slipping out of the cranial cavity. The thing swayed to the side before falling over as a mess of blood, guts, and muscle.

"I thought you were going to make a wall of ice," Mister Bunnymund pointed a finger at Jack. "I thought you were going to make sure they wouldn't squeeze us on both sides!"

"Excuse me," he marched right in front of Mister Bunnymund. "I was attacked by that thing! How could've I done anything when some monster was about to squish me with that iron bat? It looks like a column the Greeks would've used in building the Parthenon!"

"Calm down you two," Mister North pushed the two apart. "We cannot be fighting amongst ourselves when we already have enemy!"

Mister Sanderson rubbed his temples and began to gesture, albeit a bit slowly.

"Yes, we need to take care of the Ironclads that are still bombarding the castle. If we go up the path, we might be able to see them."

They ran up the path and heard the loud booms of cannon fire. They sped up their pace, hoping that the castle was not a ruined shell of its previous glory at this point.

"So who exactly is Queen Toothiana?" Jack said effortlessly as he kept up with the Guardians.

"Who is Queen Toothiana? How long have you been in the boondocks mate?" Mister Bunnymund said while he was loading a cartridge into his rifle. He did not look down at his hands since performed the action a million times before. "Queen Toothiana is royalty! She's got control of trade from China to Saudi Arabia! She's the richest person in the Orient!"

"So? She's got money but that doesn't make her a," Jack felt something running to the side of him, something emerging out of the jungle. "Look out!"

One of the mercenaries leapt out of the brush with a sword brandished but his head was cleaved off by some blur of green and blue. The minion grasped at where its head used to be but then stumbled to the ground, now a grotesque fountain of red fluid.

More mercenaries cried out from the road ahead and charged them head on with bayonets and swords. But, just as the soldier before fell, a similar blur of green and blue rushed through cutting off limbs, stabbing hearts, and decapitating heads violently.

Jack aimed his staff at the blur, or where he thought the blur was, and watched in stupefaction as the haze of colors began to slow down. At first there was a general shape, a curved body, but then more colors emerged out of the mess and finally the thing began to have an uncanny resemblance.

"Queen Toothiana," Mister Bunnymund said as she stepped forward, robes shimmering with some etherial glow and golden beads jangling harmoniously. "Master of deception and speed. Faster than any bullet and stings like a bitch."

"Gentlemen! We need to hurry! We can fight the rest of them off! We just need to give my men some time to sabotage the cruisers!"

"Mister Sanderson will take care of them, we just need to find some ground where we can see them."

"Then follow me," she said before running up the path.

They eventually found themselves in a small clearing. To the left was incredibly dense jungle but to the right was a landing which overlooked the shoreline. They all stepped onto the landing, bamboo creaking beneath Mister North's weight, and saw five metal boats off the coast. Two of them were a fiery mess, capsized and spewing clouds of black smoke. The other three were clearly unharmed.

Mister Sanderson pulled out his little leather pouch and emptied its contents onto his hands. Jack peered over his shoulder and saw him spread a purple sparkling powder all over his palms and rub them together, as if he were praying.

The Guardians took a step back from Mister Sanderson and Jack followed their lead, unsure of what was about to happen. He brought his hands, still in the prayer form, to his lips, turned his body to face one of the cruisers, took a deep breath, and puffed a short burst of air through a tiny crack in his palms.

And at that very moment the Ironclad exploded from the inside! Mister Sanderson oriented his body to the next cruiser and repeated the process until both gunboats were nothing but heaps of smoldering metal in the ocean.

"You wanna share that recipe with me mate?" Mister Bunnymund asked in fascination.

"Oh thank you Mister Sanderson!" Queen Toothiana picked him up and hugged him tightly. Jack could have sword than Mister Sanderson let out a squeak, like a real life bike horn. "A thousand thanks upon you!"

"Let us hurry! We have the advantage and we must not waste it!" Mister North shouted with a cutlass in the air.

They returned to the path and made pushed their pace. Jack made a mental note not to fool around with Mister Sanderson but his caution was slowly replaced by adrenaline and excitement. He was a boy after all and this, the events of today, were the stuff of those Wild West books, fantasies, and legends!

They approached a golden gate, smashed through by unknown force, and the Guardians drew their weapons. Jack looked at the body of a man in green robes, skewered by a bayonet, and the body of a mercenary, face smashed into a bloody pulp.

They all walked into the palace courtyard and Jack had mixed and conflicting feelings. On one hand, the palace was beautiful. It shone with a pale whiteness, a white comparable to ancient Greek monuments or snowcapped mountaintops shining in the morning. There were smells of incense, spices, and sweetness that he never imagined as possible! But on the other hand, there was a smell of wet blood. Bodies, clad in both black and green, were scattered throughout the palace courtyard. The flora was covered in either blood or crushed underneath the bodies of the deceased.

Queen Toothiana approached the pool that rested in the center of the courtyard, a shallow rectangle with gold lining its sides and lapis tiles at the bottom. "This little thing," her hand ran through its water, "is so beautiful in the morning. You can see the early morning fog rise off of its surface and, if you are an early riser, you can step into the water and spin around! You can watch the fog wisp around you, twirl, and twist around your body! The groundskeepers hate it when people step into the little pool," she said with a disheartened smile. "Now it is red with the blood of my men."

"And your enemies," Mister North said behind her.

"I shall destroy whoever did this, whoever arranged for this invasion," Queen Toothiana said as she stood up. "I shall strip them of their wealth, their men, their power, and challenge them to a duel. And I shall win," she said with a quiet fury behind her voice.

"Let's secure the castle," Mister Bunnymund said as he cocked his rifle.

She nodded and lead them into the castle of Punjam Hy Loo.

Jack noted the bloody carpets, the torn tapestries, the bullet holes in the walls, and the ever increasing frequency of dead bodies.

They approached the royal chamber and heard the clattering of iron. Perhaps someone was stealing from the royal chamber or perhaps someone was preparing themselves for a fight. Either way, the five readied their weapons before charging through the great arch that lead into the royal chamber. Although they did not see a small army inside the chamber, what they saw was something more disturbing.

A man was holding a sword in his hands. His feet were shaking, his body sweating profusely, and his eyes frantically searching for something.

The Guardians took a step forward but then his eyes suddenly darkened, the shaking stopped, and for a brief moment a strange aura settled over him.

"Well, well, well? If it isn't the Guardians," a dark voice projected through the man's mouth. "Admire my handy work?"

"Who are you?" Mister North asked, cutlasses drawn and at the ready

"Technically I'm some poor young soul caught in the crossfire; but don't be too confused! It's me!" the man laughed. "Pitch Black."

"Let 'im go," Mister Bunnymund tried to negotiate.

"Why? He's just another piece in the puzzle."

"Please Queen Toothiana," the voice was suddenly soft and trembling. "Help me."

The man's voice darkened and returned to Mister Black's voice. "It's a nice trick, using people's minds and bodies for my own will. He's nothing more than a meat puppet. It's something I picked up from the old magics." The man's eyes darted towards Mister Bunnymund, who was trying to fish out his peashooter from his boot. "Don't try anything foolish. You wouldn't want to do any unnecessary harm to this poor old chap?" The man jabbed the sword into his chest but did not push hard enough to break the skin or, worse, impale himself.

"And who is this?" the man turned to face Jack. "You do not look familiar, why are you helping the Guardians?"

"Who says I am?"

"So a civilian or a neutral? Civilians do not stink of magic, so I'm going to assume you're just another person roped into some mess caused by the Guardians. We shall definitely have the chance to speak, perhaps on much less violent terms. No guarantees though."

"I shall slay you Black for what you have done to my men and my home!" Queen Toothiana shouted.

"Then I eagerly await your arrival. But don't wait too long or else I shall definitely have the upper hand. I am going to destroy you Guardians," the man snarled. "I am going to destroy Mister M, and I am going to claim the Empire as my own!"

Before Queen Toothiana could take another step forward, Mister Black forced the man to drive the sword through his chest, twist it, and draw it out. The evil presence disappeared and all that was left was a fresh corpse lying in the center of the room.

There was a moment of silence as they tried to figure out what was going on and what just happened. Queen Toothiana ran to the throne at the other side of the royal chamber and fell to her knees.

Jack ran over to help her up but she did not budge from her spot on the floor. "What did he do Toothiana?"

"He stole them," she replied emptily, refusing to take her eyes away from the empty spots above the throne. There were eight empty holes carved into the wall behind the throne.

"What did he do?" Jack asked, still unclear as to what she was implying.

"The sacred tusks."

"The what?" Jack asked.

"A long time ago, when the Earth was still fresh and the Gods settled their conflicts, they swore never to let mankind do as they did to each other. So they took the tusks of the most powerful of animals, the elephant, and carved into them two kinds of memories: the memories of war and the memories of peace. If mankind was ever to throw the world into ultimate peril, then someone could activate the tusks and remind all the nations of the Earth of the dangers of violence and destruction.

"I am afraid that Mister Black will learn how to use only one of the memories, that is the memory of war, to subdue his enemies. The ancient texts say that a person of great power can choose to use both memories or choose to use a single one."

"So why are there two memories? What's the point?"

"Sometimes, you need to remind people of both the bad and the good and other times you only need to remind them of one. It is said that if you touch one of the tusks, you can open your eyes and see these memories. Which one you choose is up to you."

"So, I could remember anything?"

"Of course! Is there something you wanted to see?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think I have anything I want to remember."

"There is always something for us within the tusks. Perhaps a memory of your family, a memory of a lost love-"

"A memory of home."

"Yes, and all of those are in the tusks."

"So I could remember who I used to be?"

"You don't remember the life you had before?" Queen Toothiana asked with concern throughout her voice.

"It's just that I-"

"Queen Toothiana! Jack! Come here!" North shouted from across the chambers. "Sandy has an idea!"

The two walked over to Mister Sanderson while he was gesturing quickly with his hands, each finger doing something independent of the other at times.

"I stored the majority of them in my castle but there are three left scattered throughout the world. One in India, one in Indochina, and one Turkey. Sandy says that Mister Black cannot use the sacred tusks unless he has all of them." Queen Toothiana said with a bit of understanding in her voice.

"So if we just have one, then he can't do anything!" Mister Bunnymund exclaimed.

"If you read the text literally, then yes," Queen Toothiana replied cautiously.

"Then let's go!" Jack shouted.

"See?" Mister North nudged Mister Bunnymund. "I told you he would be a good addition to the Guardians. Mister M is never wrong."

* * *

**A/N: So...everyone enjoy the blood and guts? Personal headcanon, Toothiana is a complete BAMF. In the movie, we didn't see her use a weapon but she was still destroying those nightmare horse-things like it was the easiest thing in the world. This means that she was flying fast enough so that the sheer force of her FISTS was enough to banish those nightmare horse things. She was using HER FISTS while the boys were using magic or boomerangs and swords and stuff. If you think that her choice of weapon (or lack thereof) doesn't make her awesome, we can't be friends. **

**Rate, review, and give me your thoughts!**


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